


A Destiny

by ice_hot_13



Category: The Mandalorian (TV)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-23
Updated: 2020-10-23
Packaged: 2021-03-09 02:40:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,864
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27156734
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ice_hot_13/pseuds/ice_hot_13
Summary: Din meets a Force-user who offers to show him his destiny.
Relationships: Din Djarin/Boba Fett
Comments: 39
Kudos: 291





	A Destiny

When Din is twenty-two, he meets a Force user who offers to show him his destiny. For an exorbitant price, and one that probably rises as soon as she hears the flicker of interest in his voice when he echoes “my destiny?” She’s probably just good at picking out particularly lost souls and anyways, Din doesn’t have nearly enough credits, even if he was desperate enough to take her up on it.

When Din is twenty-four, he’s saved every credit he’s made since he was twenty-two, and he goes back.

He just – he needs to know something, _anything._ Needs to know there’s a reason for it all, a reason he lost everything he did, to know that the loneliness won’t last forever or that there’s some kind of purpose to all of it.

“So… what is it?” he asks, after he’s paid her and she’s led him to a dark, quiet room.

“I can’t _tell_ you,” she says, and he feels a flash of suspiciousness before she adds, “You can see for yourself.”

\---

He ends up on a ship and thinks, immediately, that he’s been tricked. Walked into a trap, and paid for the privilege of being killed, because she’s sent him to the cockpit of a ship and on the console is Boba Fett’s helmet.

Din knows about him, the whole galaxy does. What he doesn’t know is why someone would bother wasting Fett’s time on him. Din is – is nobody, really. Boba Fett is the most notorious bounty hunter in the galaxy, and there’s no way Din has done something wrong enough to be set in his sights.

He doesn’t see a way to go back, doesn’t even know how she possibly teleported him here at all, so he does the only thing he can do, and climbs down the cockpit ladder. It’s still and silent below deck for a long moment, and he stands there, holding his breath, waiting to hear something.

There’s someone else on the ship. For a moment, Din panics, and then he realizes who it must be, and the panic turns to terror. Of course someone’s here, it’s _Fett’s ship._ Although – the sound Din hears from around the corner sounds more like someone else is trapped here, maybe, sounds like someone is crying, and so Din creeps forward to see who his fellow captive is. Maybe they can figure out what they did to this Force user to deserve this, and escape.

Din leans around the corner; someone is sitting on the edge of the small bed, curled over with his head in his hands, sobbing. He’s Din’s age, maybe even younger. Din starts towards him, but his foot bumps into a pile of armor – green, he notices belatedly – and the boy flinches hard, gives a choked little sound.

“What are you doing here?” he demands; his voice is hoarse, and for all the bite to his words, there are still tears welled in his eyes.

“Uh, I don’t… know.” Not a great answer. “Who’re… you?”

“You’re on _my_ ship, and you’re asking who _I_ am?” he snaps, and Din looks from the armor back to him, a bewildered recognition dawning on him. Maybe he wasn’t tricked, because he’s been sent into the past somehow, and that has to mean something.

“You’re… Boba Fett.” Why would _he_ have anything to do with Din, though? He’s the most ruthless bounty hunter in the galaxy, older than Din, a thousand times more notorious. Currently, he looks maybe twenty. Looks like he might start crying again. “I’m, um. Din. Is something wrong?”

“With you being here? It’s not exactly ideal,” Boba snarls.

“No, with. Uh. You?”

“What the fuck?” Boba sounds like he might be trying to snap at Din again, but it comes out more of a confused whisper.

“You, um.” Din inches closer. He doesn’t know what’s gotten into him, exactly, but Boba isn’t currently aiming a blaster at him and seems sort of defenseless in a different way, too. “Seemed… upset.” Seemed _devastated,_ really, and as Din creeps closer, he can see Boba has just come from something violent, with bruises on his arms and blood seeping through his shirt at the shoulder.

“I’m fine!” He recoils from Din, but his lower lip trembles. “I did it, okay. I fucking did it and I killed them and it’s done, it’s just, it’s done.”

“Who?”

“The clones,” Boba spits. The vitriol is lost when his eyes well with tears. “On Kamino, I had to, even though I’m – who the fuck even _are you?”_ he demands, though it sounds more hysterical now, pleading like maybe there’s an answer he’s hoping for. Din decides to be brave, and he moves to sit on the bed beside Boba. Boba watches him, motionless.

“Even though you’re what?”

“A clone,” Boba mutters, ducks his head. “How did you get here? Did you – hide? On the ship?”

“I, uh. Met a Force user who said she’d show me my, um. Destiny. This is the past, in my… timeline. You’re there too, but you’re older. Thirty, maybe.”

Boba gives him a particularly wounded look. “What, your destiny is to go back and tell everyone that Boba Fett cries a lot?”

“I doubt that,” Din says, though what he really wants to ask is _a lot?_

“Well, then you’re probably just here to find out how to hurt me,” Boba says, “Now you can go back to your time and fucking… call me a clone, or whatever.”

“Would it hurt you? If I did that?”

“No,” Boba huffs, but he turns his face away.

“I don’t think it’s that kind of destiny.” He watches Boba for a long moment. Din’s heard about him, is almost afraid of him. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

“When I’m older,” Boba says after a long moment, voice soft, “Am I… alone?”

“I don’t know,” Din says, but because Boba is still looking at him, needing an answer, he goes on reluctantly. “I… think so.”

“Oh,” Boba sniffles. “Well… at least I’m not dead yet, I guess.”

“You’re pretty famous,” Din says, and Boba gives a sad little scoff.

“I’m already famous. It’s not hard.” His shoulders slump a little more. “I’m _thirty_ and I’m still alone?” he whispers, and suddenly, just like before, he’s sobbing again, curling in on himself like he’s trying to hide and shaking from it. Surely – surely Din’s destiny couldn’t be _this,_ couldn’t be that he knows things he shouldn’t about the greatest bounty hunter in the galaxy. But why else would he be here, why would he have found Boba like this, so broken after doing terrible things that he’d spilled every secret he had?

Din watches Boba for a moment and then, impulsively, he reaches over and pulls Boba into his arms. The most notorious bounty hunter in the galaxy, and Din is just – reaching for him, tugging him closer, feeling the sobs that wrack his body and needing to hold him. Boba comes startlingly easily, collapses against Din’s chest. Din wonders if he’d come later, if Boba was twenty-five, if he was thirty, if he’d accept this so willingly. Maybe that’s why Din is here, at this precise moment. Maybe his destiny is a person, is _him,_ and it’s what Din was hoping for, as soon as the Force user had said the word _destiny._ Din just wanted to be promised that he’d fall in love.

He knows the Creed, has followed it for years, but for the first time, wearing his helmet in front of someone feels like the wrong choice. And – it’s the past anyways, all of this has already happened, and Boba feels – feels different, than everyone else. Din reaches up tentatively with one hand and removes it; sets it aside. Boba responds by pressing closer, turning his face against Din’s neck.

“Please don’t – don’t tell people I’m a clone,” Boba whispers, “When you’re back in your – time, or whatever. Don’t tell them about me.”

“I wouldn’t. It’s not – it’s not a bad thing, you know,” Din says, “Being a clone? It doesn’t mean anything.” Not that he has much experience with cloning, but – but he doesn’t see why it should matter. In ten years, does Boba still care this deeply about being a clone? “But I won’t tell anyone. I promise.”

“Why did they send you here?” Boba asks, though he doesn’t lift his head from Din’s shoulder. “For your – destiny, or whatever. I don’t even know you, I don’t have anything to do with it.”

“I don’t know,” Din says, but the affection that blooms in his chest at the way Boba clings to him – maybe he does. Boba looks up at him, and Din feels himself blushing at being seen for the first time in years. Will Boba remember his face, years from now? Will he want to find Din again? Boba is – is _his,_ somehow.

Din cups Boba’s cheek gently, wipes away tears with his thumb. How can he ever stand to wreak such havoc across the galaxy, ten years from now? He’s so _hurt._ Before Din can think better of it, he leans in closer and kisses Boba.

_You’re my destiny,_ he wants Boba to remember, and the way Boba looks at him, Din thinks that maybe, maybe he will.

As abruptly as the ship appeared, it’s gone. Suddenly, Din isn’t _there_ anymore, and the first thing he feels is a helpless desire to go back. He’s back in the dark room with the Force-sensitive woman, and Boba is alone on his ship again, ten years in the past, without Din there to hold him. Or – well. Din doesn’t know where he is _now._

“Did you see it?” the woman asks, and Din can’t seem to string any words together. Could this really be what he’s destined for? To somehow – somehow have his path cross Boba Fett’s, and to arrive there knowing that Boba was once that broken? What did it _mean?_

“Now what?” Din asks, and she smiles at him.

“Well, now you wait for it to happen,” she says.

\---

Before Boba can accept a contract with the Empire, there’s something he has to do. He knows he’s being ridiculous – he should just take the job, he should just take this for the opportunity that he is and stop delaying, but he can’t stop wondering if there could be something else out there for him.

It took him twenty years to find Din. Twenty years, and then for the last two, Boba has just… done nothing about it. He knows Din’s a bounty hunter with the Guild. Knows that he’s _real,_ that Boba didn’t just hallucinate the entire thing. It had seemed plausible, honestly. The attack on the Kamino cloning facility had destroyed him, made him feel more like a clone than ever before, wracked with guilt and self-hatred and a desperation to be anything else, and of course he would have wished for someone to be there. Din was exactly what Boba would have wanted – a man who spoke to him gently and held him while he cried and told him that being a clone was okay. It was so perfect, Boba was almost positive he’d dreamed the entire thing, but he’d never been kissed before or since, and he can still _feel_ it.

Din never did find him. Boba doesn’t know how it could be Din’s destiny to find him or hurt him or _what,_ if Din never finds him. Maybe he doesn’t want to, maybe he’s seen what Boba’s become and decided not to have anything to do with him, and the thought kept Boba away for two years after finding Din, but now – now, he can’t go forward anymore without knowing. It’s the loose end that’s followed him for two decades, the one bright spot in his entire miserable life, he has to know once and for all if he means anything to Din.

He puts off responding to the Empire for another day, and he goes to Nevarro.

“I’m looking for one of your bounty hunters,” he tells Karga, who eyes him with suspicion as soon as he enters.

“May I ask why?” Karga asks, with exaggerated politeness. Boba huffs out an angry breath. He’s already nearly shaking from nervousness, he can’t handle having to explain himself, feels like he might bolt at any moment and give up on the whole thing. Why would he ever think Din would want to see _him?_ Boba’s notorious across the galaxy. He’s easy to find. Din never tried to find him, and that’s obviously a sign – “Well?” Karga prompts, “which one? Or do I have to guess that, too.”

“A, uh. Mandalorian.” He can’t make himself say Din’s name. Mandalorians never share their names. Except – he did, with Boba. Boba’s kept it held close to his chest ever since.

“He should be back later today,” Karga shrugs, casual, as if this isn’t the closest Boba has ever been to Din since he first appeared. “You can wait here.”

“Oh, can I?” Boba snaps, but he stalks across the cantina before Karga can say anything else.

The last four hours take the longest. All the hours packed into twenty-two years, and these are the most agonizing. Boba can feel everyone watching him the entire time, wondering what he could possibly be doing here, if he’s going to do something awful. He tries to block it out, watches the door and struggles to breathe evenly.

When Din appears, Boba thinks he might break down in tears. Din stands in the doorway, Karga having intercepted him, and Boba’s chest feels tight just from seeing him across the room. It’s him, it’s _him,_ twenty years and new armor and bigger than before but it’s him, the boy who appeared out of nowhere and let Boba sob into his chest and held him. It’s _him._

Din approaches cautiously, and he sinks down onto the chair across from Boba wordlessly. Boba swallows, realizes that in four hours, he still hasn’t come up with something to say.

“Din,” he says, the name nearly a whimper. Did Boba imagine the whole thing? But Din is _here,_ is real, and Boba can’t see his face but once Din took off his helmet in front of him and Boba fell in love with his brown eyes.

“So it really… really did happen, then?” Din says; his voice is a little different, but the softness of it hasn’t changed at all. “Sometimes I thought… maybe it didn’t.”

“It happened.” Boba wants badly to reach for him. Wants to see his face again, wants Din to kiss him like he did before.

“I never told anyone,” Din says quietly. “Just… so you know.”

“But you never came,” Boba blurts out, “I thought you’d come. I thought I was your –” _Destiny,_ Din had said.

“I know, I just… I guess I didn’t know if I was yours,” Din says, almost a mumble. “You’re… you.”

“You never came,” Boba says, again, can’t help it, but Din didn’t _come_ for him. Boba looked for him for twenty years, clinging to the hope that he _meant_ something to Din, and Din – he just never came back. Boba finds himself suddenly holding back tears, breath hitching. Why did he _come?_ Din could have found him easily, and the fact that he didn’t was because he knew what Boba turned out to be and didn’t _like_ it.

“Oh,” Din murmurs, very soft. “hey. Don’t – don’t cry. I’m sorry.”

“I’m _not,”_ Boba snarls, but he is, a little bit. It’s just – he was twenty and broken and Din came for him then, and he’d gone the next twenty years breaking and breaking and Din _never came._

Din hesitates, and then he stands; Boba truly has no idea what he’s going to go next. He’s not expecting Din to beckon for him to follow, but he goes, of course he goes. He follows Din out, doesn’t even notice all the people staring after him, because in a way, Din’s come for him and this is what Boba was always hoping would happen.

Din brings him back to a ship and once it’s just them, once they’re hidden and safe and it’s just like the time that Din appeared out of nowhere, Din takes his helmet off. His eyes are exactly the same, and when he reaches for Boba’s helmet, Boba does nothing to stop him.

“I just thought I wasn’t enough,” Din says softly, “for a destiny like that. Like you.” He takes off Boba’s helmet and studies his face for a moment; Boba doesn’t even _know him,_ not really and somehow, this is always the way he is, when he’s with Din – an emotional mess, suddenly filled with a desire for all kinds of things he knows he doesn’t deserve. “I’m here now, though,” Din says, and he sounds just like he did twenty-two years ago. When he appeared out of nowhere. When he was everything Boba had been hoping for, with his strong arms and soft voice and the way he looked at Boba like he could be worth being someone’s destiny, like Din was glad that Boba was his.

**Author's Note:**

> Also on [tumblr](icehot13.tumblr.com/)!


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